This week Amazon changed up their Video on Demand pricing structure, and it serves up a real treat for Amazon Prime members. Current paid Amazon Prime members can now watch 2000+ unlimited, commecial-free videos at the grooviest price ever –Free! Many of the more popular TV-series and new-release movies are still pay-per-view, but with 2000+ free ones up it still leaves quite the selection; though the HD content is rather slim.

This sounds too good to be true, I got Amazon Prime for free…

Before you get too excited, you need to know that this free streaming service only works with paidAmazon Prime accounts. This means that you must have paid the$79 yearly membership fee. Here is the total list of limitations:

Does not work for Amazon Prime Student, Mom, or Guest accounts. Requires $79 upgrade.

Only streaming video is free, if your device can’t live stream Amazon videos then it won’t work. Roku owners can use the Amazon Instant channel to stream for free.

United States customers only.

For me, I have an Amazon Prime student account – which provides unlimited free Two-Day shipping and $4 One-Day shipping. Personally I don’t think that the $79 per year cost is worth it if the only upgrade I get is the free video streaming, which is roughly the cost of Netflix. And, at this point Netflix has a much better selection for the same price.

If you aren’t eligible for a free Amazon Prime account, this just adds a nice treat to the $79 fee that you would have to pay anyway to receive unlimited free Two-Day shipping.

I have a PAID Amazon Prime Account, where do I get my FREE videos?

You’ve paid up the $79 fee to to bridge troll and now you’ve got your bonus of free movies & TV shows. But, when you go to look at the Amazon Instant Video page it still shows all these pay-per-view shows mixed in with the free stuff. Let’s sort them out.

To show only the free ones, just Click the Prime Eligible button from the left-pane. Now Amazon will only display TV & Movies that are free for paid Prime members. Or, just Click Here.

Conclusion

Although Amazon advertises that 5000 free Movies & TV shows are available for streaming, there actually only about 1700 movies and 500 TV shows total. An Amazon Prime membership is definitely worth the $79, but not specifically for the video streaming –think of it as more of a bonus. For now it is best to stick with a free Prime membership if you can get one, and then use Netflix or Hulu Plus for your video streaming.

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About Austin Krause

Austin Krause is a groovyPost founding senior editor based in Tampa Bay, FL.